Spanish to English
Michelle's translation of The Cracks We Bear by Catalina Infante was shortlisted for the 2026 Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award. The Award recognizes translations into English of literary prose works written originally by authors of Spanish (Spain) nationality. What the judges had to say: "An English-language debut…
On October 22, 2026, Michelle will be reading from her translation of Catalina Infante's "A Body" as part of the Best Literary Translations offsite reading during the American Literary Translators Association annual conference, alongside eleven fellow translators. "A Body" is one of eight stories from Infante's…
By Dainerys Machado Vento (tr. Michelle Mirabella) Columbia Journal, 2026 Part of a sequence of dream writings, “Obituary” exists in memory where dreams and reality blur. Machado Vento drops readers in, recreating this sensation of dreams lacking context, and leaves us wondering about where the…
Shortlisted for the 2026 Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award, The Cracks We Bear opens as a story about new motherhood. Soon, however, it reveals itself to be an exploration of memory and trauma as Laura starts to recall her childhood in Chile. Born in exile to staunchly communist parents, she returns to Chile with her mother after the collapse of the Pinochet dictatorship. In the fledgling democracy she grows up in, topics of capitalism and communism are ever present. Laura’s reflections, born from personal experience, are interwoven with raw and honest memories of her family life. Borrowing elements from the Bildungsroman, and pulling from the Latin American short story tradition, Catalina Infante recounts Laura’s past in vignettes. Piece by piece, the short chapters come together like a reconstructed vase, bearing its cracks.